Note: Ballistic and Needle attacks treat archaic/modern armours as attacks against Reflex instead of attacks against Armour. However, those armours still provide their full normal damage resistance against such attacks, if they have any.

Meta-Game Note: Each of these five levels of physical damage types represents an approximate tripling of energy per unit of impact area.

* Acid: Dissolving stuff. Also alkalis.
* Cold: Ice, that's all. Water-bodied creatures tend to have water resistance 5 (water is a poor heat conductor).
* Dessication: Attacks that directly dehydrate the body to do damage. Water-bodied creature have dessication vulnerability; most other non-organic creatures have dessication immunity.
* Electricity: Zzzzap. Most robots that are not carefully shielded have electricity vulnerability.
* Fire: Good old-fashioned hot stuff. Creatures made of wood (such as treemen) often have fire vulnerability. Lasers deal fire damage, but due to the narrow focus of the beam, they don't typically ignite objects (a starship laser cannon would probably ignite a forest, but that's outside the scope of combat rules). Fire-bodied creatures are immune to this. Water-bodied creatures have fire resistance 20, as water is not particularly flammable.
* Sonic: Vibrations on a molecular level, causing damage. This is often accompanied by jarring noises as a special effect, and creatures that can hear may find they can't afterwards. Particularly brittle creatures, such as those with rock-based bodied, have sonic vulnerability.
* Gravity: Vibration on a molecular level, caused by gravity waves. Alternately, this may be a simultaneously "implosion" effect surrounding the target. Again, this is caused by manipulating gravity fields. This is mostly a SF effect from gravity guns.
* Nucleonic: SF rayguns that manipulate the strong/weak nuclear forces do this type of damage. The visual effect is not unlike a disintegrate spell.

xxxx Vulnerability (1.5 or more): If you are vulnerable to a specific damage type, you take (number) times normal damage (or half that on a successful save, if applicable). All saving throws against that damage type are at -4, where applicable.

xxxx Resistance (1-20): Reduce the damage taken from that damage type by the indicated number. If you have (damage type) resistance 20, you never take more than half damage (eg. an attack that would have dealt 50 damage would deal 25 damage if you have resistance 20 to that attack).

xxxx Immunity: You just don't ever take damage from this damage type.

Calculating damage taken: Usually, only one (at most) of these modifiers will apply. If the target has immunity, nothing else is relevant. If teh target has vulnerability and resistance, calculate damage as follows:

Note that the 3e Damage Reduction rules have been abolished. Such creatures instead have one or more (or all) physical damage resistances. Creatures that have damage resistance with a specific vulnerability (eg. werewolves have DR 10/silver in the SRD) keep the DR as physical resistance at the same number, and add a vulnerability to the specific item that would normally penetrate the DR. Our werewolf gets physical resistance 10 and silver vulnerability x2. If shot by a silver bullet for 2d8 damage, he takes 7 (dice roll) x2 (vulnerability; no saving throw is relevant here) -10 (damage resistance) = 4 damage. If it were an ordinary bullet, the werewolf probably wouldn't even have noticed it.

Emma Rome, otherwise known as Ashtagon
Overall site admin for The Piazza. My moderator colour is pink!

An alternate rule I like in theory (but have never found a good, balanced, practical application of) is that each type has a side effect. Like Cold slows the target or leaves them shivering for a round, or acid sickens the target or continues damaging (a small amount, ie 1d2) for a second round, or the like. But any attempt to stat out the effects always seems to overpower one or two types.

couldn't cold, in some cases, also be used/seen as the opposite of sonic. as-in it is the slowing down or ceasing of molecular vibrations?

* Fire: Good old-fashioned hot stuff. Creatures made of wood (such as treemen) often have fire vulnerability. Lasers deal fire damage, but due to the narrow focus of the beam, they don't typically ignite objects (a starship laser cannon would probably ignite a forest, but that's outside the scope of combat rules). Fire-bodied creatures are immune to this. Water-bodied creatures have fire resistance 20, as water is not particularly flammable.

I've never been sure- is Fire supposed to include Heat? or would that fall under Sonic?

* Sonic:

given the number of other uses, I always thought this was mis-named. But on the other hand I can't think of any other short, appropriate name. perhaps Vibrational?

I think I understand, but I'm not quite sure how exactly this differs from sonic. If both touching molten metal and touching a flame both deal Fire damage, shouldn't these both be the same type of damage as well, regardless of the source? Or is Sonic supposed to be an area or directional attack while Gravity is specifically controlled/shaped/molded to a precise target/area?

xxxx Resistance (1-20): .... If you have (damage type) resistance 20, you never take more than half damage (eg. an attack that would have dealt 50 damage would deal 25 damage if you have resistance 20 to that attack).

Is that somethnig from RAW that I missed? or something you added? Is it possible to have a resistance of greater than 20?

In certain cases, damage types will have side-effects associated with them. But these will be effects of the specific attack, rather than something automatically associated with the damage type.

couldn't cold, in some cases, also be used/seen as the opposite of sonic. as-in it is the slowing down or ceasing of molecular vibrations?

Sonic: You seem to be misinterpreting things slightly. While sound and heat are of course convertible in physics, I'm not taking that line. I'm also not trying to match off "opposites" in damage types. A damage type is simply "something that damages". I am specifically using this to cover only sound waves.

Fire and Heat: For now, I'm going to work on the assumption that any level of fire resistance makes you immune to environmental heat damage (and ditto for cold resistance and cold, and dessication resistance and dehydration). Any attack described as a "heat ray" deals fire damage.

Sonic vs Gravity: The primary difference is in how they can be defended against. A device that protects against sonic attacks might have no effect against gravity attacks, and vice versa. Also, sonic cannons suck in outer space.

Maximum of 1/2 damage with damage resistance 20: This is a houserule I am implementing. It's to stop the silly situation of the best possible energy resistance barely affecting a high-damage attack. I considered adding higher levels with progressively bigger dividers, but the corner cases are too marginal to be worth creating obscure rules for.

Actual immunity to a specific attack form is reserved to creatures that are essentially made of that attack form. Fire elementals get fire immunity, for example, while fire giants merely get fire resistance 20. In core 3e, energy resistance is capped at 20. There's no particular reason not to allow higher values, but with damage capped at 50% once you have resistance 20, its a corner-case situation that would justify higher values. There's no special reason not to allow for it though.

Emma Rome, otherwise known as Ashtagon
Overall site admin for The Piazza. My moderator colour is pink!

Currently, I have it set so that DR 20+ means damage is always capped at 1/2 whatever it was immediately before DR is applied (that is, DR 20+ reduces damage by 20 or divides it by 2, whichever is better for the defender).

How does the following work/ It's a logical extension of this rule, and can be extended upwards infinitely.

If DR is 30+, damage is capped at 1/3 whatever it was immediately before DR is applied (that is, DR 30+ reduces damage by the DR value, or divides it by 3, whichever is better for the defender).

If DR is 40+, damage is capped at 1/4 whatever it was immediately before DR is applied (that is, DR 40+ reduces damage by the DR value, or divides it by 4, whichever is better for the defender).

If DR is 50+, damage is capped at 1/5 whatever it was immediately before DR is applied (that is, DR 50+ reduces damage by the DR value, or divides it by 5, whichever is better for the defender).

(etc...)

?

Emma Rome, otherwise known as Ashtagon
Overall site admin for The Piazza. My moderator colour is pink!

Note: Ballistic and Needle attacks treat archaic/modern armours as attacks against Reflex instead of attacks against Armour. However, those armours still provide their full normal damage resistance against such attacks, if they have any.

Where would a lightsabre or a mono-fillament whip come into this sort of scheme? You said that Needle was a "more pointy" version of Piercing. It seems that a lightsabre and mono-filament whip would both be a "more pointy" version of Slashing. Would they go with the "attacks against Reflex" thing?

Big Mac wrote:Where would a lightsabre or a mono-fillament whip come into this sort of scheme? You said that Needle was a "more pointy" version of Piercing. It seems that a lightsabre and mono-filament whip would both be a "more pointy" version of Slashing. Would they go with the "attacks against Reflex" thing?

I would put a light sabre under Nucleonic.

Ashtagon wrote:
* Nucleonic: SF rayguns that manipulate the strong/weak nuclear forces do this type of damage. The visual effect is not unlike a disintegrate spell.